Knitting classes part of Evergreen’s ‘After ‘Ours’ program

Hugh McMillan

Special to the Gateway

Not long before summer break, as my wife and I were leaving Evergreen Elementary after our weekly special time with kids as Communities In Schools of Peninsula reading mentors, I chanced upon a co-educational knitting class in the school library.

They had a great teacher in our friend, Donna Daily of Longbranch, who told me knitting is one of the classes that the school’s “After ‘Ours” program offers to students.

She has several first-graders in the group. Each session is eight to 10 weeks long.

“ ‘After Ours’ is a before- and after-school program to provide academic support and enrichment activities for the kids of Evergreen,” school Principal Jacque Crisman wrote in an e-mail.

Crisman said “After ‘Ours” is supported by two grants: the Pierce County Violence Prevention Grant and the 21st Century Gateway Grant.

School levy dollars also help the program, she said.

“Julie Kreis is our coordinator and does an outstanding job working with Evergreen staff to find different unique activities for our kids,” Crisman said.

The program includes arts, physical activities, academic enterprises — and even knitting.

“The knitters learn to finger knit and then move on to stick knitting,” Daily said. “I buy 3/8-inch dowels, cut them in three pieces, run one end through the pencil sharpener and smooth off the rough edges with sand paper.

“Voila! Low-budget knitting needles.”

After ‘Ours’ budget covers the cost of yarn.

“I think more kids should know knitting sooner,” second-grader Sienna Lippert said.

“Knitting relaxes and releases stress and anger,” classmate Kayla Mathis added.

Third-grader Natalie Pierson almost sang: “In through the front door, run around the back. Peek out the window and off jumped jack.” She added, “This is the poem that helps us stick knitters knit.”

The finger knit process involves a series of slip knots that build into a chain.

“Some students finger knit the whole ball of yarn,” Daily said. “This can get to be a contest to measure the longest chain of finger knitting. The chains measure around the library and sometimes out the door into the hall.”

Finger knitting mastered, knitters are ready for stick knitting.

“We buddy knit with sample projects,” Daily said. “The knitter on the left will pick up the stitches, and the knitter on the right will wrap the yarn around the needle. Then the knitters change sides.

“It’s a fun, cooperative way to learn. Knitters chat with each other while working. Often, experienced knitters help newer knitters knit.”

Finished projects go home with students and are often gifts for friends or family members. Coin purses or wallets are popular with the kids.

“Winter neck scarves are bigger projects and take more time and concentration to finish,” Daily said. “Variegated yarn colors are very popular; boys seem to like the camouflage yarn.”

Students like to have projects they can take home to work on. Some who have siblings ask for more knitting needles and yarn to teach them.

Knitters also have projects to work on at home. Some have made purses, wallets, bookmarks or scarves.

The class is open to all students at Evergreen.

For more information, call Kreis or Crisman at 253-530-1300 or write to: Evergreen Elementary School, 1820 Key Peninsula Highway S., Lakebay, WA 98349.

As to what’s happening this summer, said the Children’s Home Society, along with the Two Waters Art Alliance, has three different week camps. One of them has knitting as an option.

The first week will be held July 6-9 at the Key Peninsula Civic Center; the second from July 13-15 at Evergreen. The last week will be at Soundview Camp. All sessions are from 9 a.m. to noon.

Vicki Biggs, CHS program coordinator, said the July 9 session will be the program’s first pet day.

“Children and parents will be bringing pets to share sort of a stationary pet parade,” Biggs said. “No dogs or cats are allowed; they frequently get out of hand.”

Biggs said new this year will be a couple from Allyn who travel the world to photograph birds. They will teach kids about bird watching.

On July 15 at Evergreen, the program will host Leonard and Loretta Hawkins — the “teepee people” — who will set up a replica of a teepee and will be dressed in period costumes, Biggs said.

“Harry Oda, ‘the flintknapper,’ will demonstrate how Native Americans fashioned arrowheads and tools out of obsidian and other stones,” she said. “Other activities, such as writing with feather quills, dying yarns and plant materials with berry juices — sort of our own rendezvous in the spirit of the Natives and Mountain Men — will be added.”

On July 16, the summer camp tours, eats snacks and plays in the field at Creviston Valley farm.

“We are emphasizing local food, local farm, local people volunteering to enrich the lives of children,” Biggs said.

Kids will learn to make compost bins that they will demonstrate July 12 at the Key Peninsula Farmers’ Market.

“To cap it all off,” Biggs said, “every child, every volunteer, every staff member receives an original ‘summer fun T-shirt,’ provided anonymously as gifts.”

The cost of the camps is $16 per week. That covers materials, instructions and snacks. The camps are for children in kindergarten through fifth grade, and scholarships are available.

For more information, call Biggs at 253-884-5433.

Hugh McMillan is a longtime freelance writer for The Peninsula Gateway. He can be reached at 253-884-3319 or by e-mail at hmcmnp1000@centurytel.net.